Twenty-two miles north by northwest of downtown Los Angeles, on the edge of
the city limits, abutting the Los Angeles National Forest, is Los Angeles Mission
College. Established in 1975 to fill an educational void in this part of the
city, its first classes were offered in storefront buildings with an inaugural
class of 1,228 students. Despite these humbling beginnings, the college endured
temporary and varying locations for sixteen years, finally securing in 1991
a new, permanent campus in Sylmar, one of dozens of communities in Los Angeles.
Today, the student body enrollments vary from 5,400 to 7,000, crowding the new
campus that is yet in only the first phase of development. Fortunately, the
state has respected our growth and our need by partially funding a new library
and learning resources building, to be completed in 1996.

Mission College is one of nine community colleges that compose the Los Angeles
Community College District which has a service area of 882 square miles, a population
of 4.8 million, a student population of 115,389, a chancellor, and a board of
trustees. The district affirms the principle that anyone capable of benefiting
from higher education should have the opportunity to be educated. Affirmations
notwithstanding, for several years now the district has been unable to ensure
funding adequate to student needs: enrollment limits have been reduced; classes
have been cut; retiring full-time instructors are all too frequently replaced
by part-time; and individual colleges have become increasingly dependent upon
outside funding in order to improve programs and meet the changing challenges
of their communities.

The official mission statement of the college pledges a commitment to serve
adults of all ages who can profit from instruction and to provide open access
to programs in transfer, occupational, general, transitional, and continuing
education. It also offers a broad range of Community Extension courses. This
commitment, of course, assumes a responsibility to assist students in attaining
their educational goals, a responsibility encumbered by two phenomenal changes
within the community and the state.

THE COMMUNITY

Population

The first unexpected change was the population growth and changing ethnicity
within the college service area. Forty-four percent more people now live in
the college service area than were here ten years ago, pushing the local population
to 400,000, and making this the fastest growing area in Los Angeles. This sudden
increase surpassed all projections of local and state agencies. Their low projections
for this area, in fact, were a primary reason for not funding the college sooner
than it was; they simply were not convinced of the need.

Ethnicity

Accompanying the population increase was an unusual shift in ethnic distribution.
Between 1980 and 1990:

Hispanic population increased over 100%

Asians increased over 144%

Non-Anglos increased from 45% of the total to 65%

Anglos decreased by 20%

Today:

Anglos, 29.2%

Asians, 7%

Hispanics represent over 56.5% of the total

AAfro-Americans, 6%

Economics

These changes exacerbated the economic conditions that previously were considered
depressed. Unemployment and underemployment rates in predominantly African-American
and Hispanic/Latino communities are generally higher than prevailing state and
national norms. At best, the unemployment rate is consistently 2.5 percent higher
than in Los Angeles County. The income level is also lower than the county median.
Many residents are working class and immigrants. In real estate, houses of comparable
construction are valued 25- to 30% lower than in neighboring communities.

Education

The economic depression of the area is matched only by the one in education.
The majority of Mission College's feeder high schools are predominantly Hispanic.
Sylmar High School sends the fewest seniors to college in the entire City of
Los Angeles, a mere 25%. San Fernando High, which borders Sylmar, has a 95%
minority enrollment and a dropout rate of over 60%. For even the students who
do graduate from high school, there are few if any college-educated, role models
within the family, which typically is large, poor, and uneducated. After running
upon hard times in the employment market, many of these high school dropouts
turn to college as a last chance.

Thus, a significant number of students at Mission College are first generation
college students, and not surprisingly, the odds of their succeeding are against
them. The Achievement Council, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing
academic achievement among minority and low-income students in California, has
published a research report, Unfinished Business, clearly showing the
academic underpreparedness of the kind of students entering Mission College.
The following are salient excepts from that report:

The attrition rate for Blacks and Latinos at schools with large minority
enrollments is nearly 70%

Latinos and Blacks are less than half as likely as Anglos to be enrolled
in advanced math and physics courses

Latinos in California scored 79 points below Anglos on the Verbal SAT
and 80 points below in the Math SAT

Here at Mission, for every ten, first-time students enrolled in credit courses
in the fall, fewer than six persist into the spring semester. For ethnic minority
students, these dropout statistics are a consequence of inadequate preparation
for college and of, most especially, language barriers. Consider that in fall
1991, of first-time entering students, only

7% scored high enough on the English placement test to enroll in college- level
composition

1% scored high enough to be placed into the highest level ESL course

9% scored at college-level reading ability

Fortunately, the traditional, developmental courses that Mission has offered
from its founding help many of these students to rise above their entry-level
skills. Mission is doing better than most community colleges in California in
transitioning noncredit students from ESL and Amnesty courses to credit enrollment;
and yet many do not persist. Even fewer achieve their stated goals. The percentage
of ethnic minority students earning degrees and certificates has not grown commensurably
with the enrollment growth of these students. Their need to clarify goals, make
educational plans, and succeed is one that Mission College wants to address
more aggressively.

Other characteristics of our student population present challenges of a different
sort. The profile of Mission College students reflects very closely that of
the community with all its diversity in ethnicity, socioeconomic levels, and
educational expectations. In brief, the students are nontraditional:

70% are part-time

85% are over 21 years of age; 67%, over 25

45% attend only in the evening

66% are female; many are older than average, are homemakers, and divorcees
in want of job-related training and specialized courses

Providing responsive, educational services in such a rapidly changing area
would challenge even a well-established and well-funded institution.

The State

The other phenomenal change that has affected our commitment was the voter
rebellion in 1978, Proposition 13, which eliminated funding from local property
taxes and placed this responsibility into the hands of the state legislature.
Since then, funding for all California community colleges has been erratic and
unpredictable and has been worse for an emerging institution such as Mission.
Indeed, for the first time in the history of the state, tuition has been imposed
on community college students, who generally are from that portion of the community
that is least able to pay. Consequently, scholarships and other special funding
have become increasingly important for our students. While our student population
was increasing at one of the highest rates in the state, the legislature put
a cap on funding increased enrollment; while the college needs more developmental
courses for underprepared students, the state mandates transfer curriculum.

The shift in funding resulted, of course, in a shift of control. Mission College,
as do all other California community colleges, operates under the governance
of a state chancellor, a state board appointed by the governor, with its own
district chancellor and board in between. The state chancellor and board oversee
the distribution of funds apportioned by the state legislature and they lobby
the legislature on behalf of the community colleges. Although most curricular
and program decisions are made at the district level, some important regulations
are set by the legislature and also the state board and chancellor's office.

The Future

Unlike the changes of the past decade that took most by surprise, those of
the decade to come are ineluctably outlined. The extraordinary population increase
is expected to continue because this part of Los Angeles still has a lower population
and housing density per acre than anywhere else in the city, 6.7 and 2.1 respectively.
These factors in conjunction with the relatively low real estate values will
promote even more expansion, and that expansion will be made by those from the
lower economic and educational levels, those most in need of special educational
programs.

State funding is not likely to provide additional funds to colleges simply
because they are serving students with special needs, and the growing percentage
of nontraditional, disadvantaged students at Mission has such needs. The unpredictability
of funding is exemplified by the state's granting the colleges a cost-of-living
increase in its budget and rescinding it at funding time.

In brief, the crisis in American education has not passed over Los Angeles,
but the faculty and staff at Mission College are determined to prevail. From
the beginning, this college has been unique. It was staffed by young instructors
from other campuses who were selected by their colleagues to take on the challenges
of starting a new college. In an attempt to promote social and intellectual
exchange across the disciplines, the college organized itself into three clusters,
rather than by departments.

During the past few years, the college has developed several remarkable programs
to assist students. The Project for Adult College Education (PACE) allows working
students to attend at night, by video, and on weekends and still earn a degree
in two years. Ours is the largest such program in California. The Amnesty program
was the largest in Los Angeles, serving over 4,000 students a year. Steadily
growing is the Greater Avenues for Independent Living program (GAIN). Through
a number of JTPA grants, a broad noncredit, vocational curriculum was developed,
offering bilingual classes in a variety of areas.

Most recently, the college has secured a $2.5 million Title III grant to improve
assessment, tracking, mentoring, instruction, and curriculum development. Such
funds of course are categorically bound to develop and test, not to implement.

If Mission College is to fulfill its official commitment, it must find assistance
to broaden and improve its programs in reading, ESL, basic English and math,
and in bilingual education and training. Developing these programs will move
Mission College into an expansive future.